Back in Uncle Andrew’s Study

Posted on September 3, 2007
Filed Under All things Narnia, Generally Spiritual (few if any geek references), Some slightly auto-biographical stuff | 1 Comment

In a previous article (Wood between the Worlds) I updated you all on my journey towards my next job. How about another update?

The coolest thing has happened! Suddenly I found myself no longer in “the wood between the worlds!” I am currently working a contract job in the city, doing pretty much what I have been doing for over 10 years: project management.

Wait a minute. There’s something terribly familiar about this place.

I see a large room with dozens and dozens of thin little walls arranged into narrow stalls. In the stalls are human types, at least that’s what I think they are. It’s hard to tell, for each of them is huddled into the back of their stall, hunched over some glowing, flickering thing. They stare intently at it, and tap frantically on it as if trying to create some kind of “magic” through it.

Occasionally, I see a “stall dweller’s” head pop up above the walls and look around (frightened by something?), and then suddenly disappear into their stall. I have also noticed a little box inside of each stall. From time to time it cries out in a chirpy, demanding kind of way. Immediately, the stall dweller will grab it–or rather it’s head, I suppose–put it right up to his mouth and talk to it. Is he trying to console it? Sometimes the dweller talks to it in calm, soothing tones. Other times he will yell at it, but no approach seems to work. No matter how he tries to pacify it, every few minutes the box will cry out again, demanding his attention.

They lead me to my stall, sit me down and show me my magic making device (a.k.a. “computer”), and leave me to weave electronic incantations.

That’s when it hit me: I’m back in Uncle Andrew’s Study.

[Dude, as usual you lost me. ]

Sorry, can’t be helped. If you are going to understand this article you will need to find a basic primer on “The Magician’s Nephew” by C.S.Lewis. I suggest you go forth and Google….

Oh, all right. Here, I’ll give you a summary instead.

Uncle Andrew was Digory’s uncle. Because of his peevish and greedy ways, he fancied himself a magician and got into a lot of trouble for it. It was in his study that Digory and Polly discovered Andrew’s rings, the green ones and the yellow ones. Those rings were used to get to and from “the wood between the worlds.”

Once Digory and Polly had traveled to the wood between the worlds–and from there to other worlds–they came back to Uncle Andrew’s study. That’s where their troubles really took off. One would think that coming back home would be a good thing, but not in this case.

Returning to Uncle Andrew’s study, in Narnian mythology, represents a way of jumping out of the frying pan and…. well, right back into that frying pan.

Back to my contract job. Is working in an office again really like returning Uncle Andrew’s study? Sort of. Well, not really, but I’m not sure what else to compare it to.

The company I am now working in is hardly like “Charn,” the ancient, cruel, decrepit world that Digory and Polly found when they first left the wood between the worlds. No, this is a nice place. I rather like it here. But never-the-less, it is just a little too familiar, a little too similar to the OfficeSpaceWorld that I just left. I suppose contracting at a company is a bit more like returning to “Uncle Andrew’s Study” than any other “world” I can think of. It certainly isn’t “Narnia” to me.

It does feel good to have a routine, and be appreciated, and do something that you’re pretty good at–and get paid pretty well for, I might add. Still, I have this nagging feeling that this type of work is not what God really has in mind for me, at least not in the long run.

I don’t think that God sent me into the “Wood Between the Worlds” only to have me drift back into Uncle Andrew’s Study, or something very similar to it. In other words, I just don’t think that God wants me to go back to corporate life. And yet, maybe He does…. Here is why I am starting to wonder.

Recently, my client/manager asked me if I would be open to a permanent position. IF he is able to arrange it, that is. I was flattered and felt that this could resolve my job situation in a rather miraculous way. Naturally, I said, “yes! I’d love it!” Still, though, there was this nagging thought: am I drifting again? Am I taking the easy way out, just going with the flow?

I feel that if I get the offer I would be a bit foolish not to take it. Besides, how could I explain turning it down to my wife?

“Honey, God provided a really good job at a very nice company, doing something I’m pretty good at with lots of opportunities to be contributor and plenty of room to grow, but it doesn’t feel like “Narnia” to me. So, I turned them down.” Somehow I think she would look at me, blink, shake her head (or hold it) and in her own way say something like “ooow. yeah…. We have sort of a problem here….”

For now, a permanent position is purely theoretical and I’m not going to pin all my hopes on it. But it raises the question: why did God answer my prayer by helping me get out of Corporate Life? Does He really want me to go right back into it? If He does, I will, and I will actually feel peace about it, knowing that I obeyed God.

I do wish that God would just give me a “burning bush” like experience and make my path so blasted clear that even an idiot with the IQ of a stone could not miss the message; like the way He made leaving my last job very clear through allowing me to get laid off (Uh….. did I just call myself an idiot with the IQ of a stone??).

For now, though, I’m actually quite happy to be in “Uncle Andrew’s study” so to speak. The opportunity came in a rather miraculous way, and there is no doubt that they like my work; the people there are good folks to work with, and I have a solid routine. I’m not sure how this is going to turn out, but for now I feel that if they offer me a permanent position, I’ll probably take it.

In other words, for now, I’ll stay in Uncle Andrew’s Study (though I’d rather find my ‘Narnia’).

Say, what’s that flickering light off in the distance? It looks like something is in flames, and yet there is something very odd about it. I don’t see any smoke…. no ashes rising from it… it’s not getting any smaller….. hmmmm. That’s curious. I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to go over there and check it out.

Ah! rats! Here comes my train. Can’t be late for work. Better get on board before all the good seats are taken. I guess I’ll have to read about that weird burning-but-not-smoldering-bush-like-thing on www.all-about-local-news.com, once I get to the office.

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